A Contractor Can Help

I remember as a kid when my parents bought our second house. They had decided to do some renovations and had hired all kinds of workers to come in. For a young kid—I was probably nine or ten—this was something of a mesmerizing spectacle. There were landscapers and electricians, construction workers, architects, interior designers, plumbers, and a whole assortment of people that I couldn't quite figure out what they did, only that they were doing something. Perhaps the biggest impression all these people walking in and around my house was the seemingly controlled chaos of it all. How were all these guys getting the job done? There seemed to be just too much potential for something going wrong, for somebody getting in the way of somebody else's work—a landscape man unknowingly screwing with a plumber's piping, a brick wall being built where wiring was supposed to be installed. But, somehow, none of these building blunders occurred. How did it happen? Maybe I didn't understand it then, but now I know my parents had hired the person to orchestrate the whole operation: a professional contractor.

In fact, the contractor was the first person my parents had contacted about the renovation. He and my parents discussed both the big picture and small details of how they wanted the remodeling to look, which included, among other things, a new kitchen, redone den, a finished basement, plenty of new paint, several exterior renovations, and landscaping work. After some of the preliminary planning was completed, the contractor discussed cost estimates with my parents, laying out in detail what each section of the job would cost and why. Then came the drafting of the contract itself and the hiring of the individual companies that would help contribute to the completion of the renovation.

And the great thing about hiring a contractor is that, once the details are blueprinted and the papers signed, the homeowner's only real responsibility left is to enjoy watching their house's remodeling come to fruition. I don't remember my parents having much to do at all while the work was going on—and they weren't. The contractor took control of the whole project, overseeing the entire operation and making sure everything was progressing smoothly. Without him, I'm not sure what we would have done: there are just too many people working on too many different things for anyone who isn't an expert to chaperone properly. For my parents, who certainly had other things to be worry about and jobs to attend to, they couldn't have followed through with their plans without help from a professional who could be on site every day, ensuring that the job was being done correctly.